Bolt is an Estonian multinational mobility company that offers

ride-hailing A ridesharing company (or ridehailing service) is a company (or service offered by a company) that, via websites and mobile apps, matches passengers with drivers of vehicles for hire that, unlike taxis, cannot legally be hailed from the street. ...

micromobility Micromobility refers to a range of small, lightweight vehicles, driven by users personally. Micromobility devices include bicycles, velomobiles, e-bikes, cargo bikes, electric scooters, electric skateboards, shared bicycle fleets, and electric ...

rental, food and grocery delivery (via the Bolt Food app), and

carsharing Carsharing or car sharing (AU, NZ, CA, TH, & US) or car clubs (UK) is a model of car rental where people rent cars for short periods of time, often by the hour. It differs from traditional car rental in that the owners of the cars are often pri ...

services. The company is headquartered in

Tallinn Tallinn is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Estonia, most populous city of Estonia. Situated on a Tallinn Bay, bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, it has a population of (as of 2025) and ...

and operates in over 600 cities in more than 50 countries in

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

Western Asia West Asia (also called Western Asia or Southwest Asia) is the westernmost region of Asia. As defined by most academics, UN bodies and other institutions, the subregion consists of Anatolia, the Arabian Peninsula, Iran, Mesopotamia, the Armenian ...

and

Latin America Latin America is the cultural region of the Americas where Romance languages are predominantly spoken, primarily Spanish language, Spanish and Portuguese language, Portuguese. Latin America is defined according to cultural identity, not geogr ...

History

The company was founded in 2013 as Taxify by Markus Villig, then a 19-year-old high-school student. Markus built the prototype of the app while personally recruiting drivers on the streets of Tallinn after receiving a €5000 loan from his family. The service was launched in Tallinn, Estonia in August 2013, and by 2014, it was operating abroad including in Latvia and Lithuania. By 2016, Bolt had expanded to South Africa, Kenya and Nigeria. In April 2017, it expanded to Baku and Malta. In September 2017, Bolt launched its services in London by acquiring a local taxi company, but was suspended by

Transport for London Transport for London (TfL) is a local government body responsible for most of the transport network in London, United Kingdom. TfL is the successor organization of the London Passenger Transport Board, which was established in 1933, and His ...

due to licensing issues. In February 2018, the company filed a new licence application and relaunched in London in June 2019. In October 2017, it expanded to Paris. In April 2018, it reached 10 million global users and later that year became the first ride-hailing company to launch electric scooter operations. In March 2019, the company changed its name from Taxify to Bolt. In August 2019, the company launched Bolt Food, a

food delivery Food delivery is a courier service in which a restaurant, store, or independent food-delivery company delivers food to a customer. An order is typically made either by telephone, through the supplier's website or mobile app, or through a thir ...

service in Tallinn. It has since expanded to over 80 cities across 20 countries with over 30,000 restaurants using the platform. In May 2021, Bolt launched Bolt Drive, a car-sharing service which is now present in seven countries across Europe. In September 2021, Bolt launched a grocery delivery service, Bolt Market. In December 2024 Bolt expanded its services in the Middle East to Dubai. In February 2025 the company launched ride-hailing in Toronto, Canada, and scooters in Washington DC. In November 2024, Bolt lost a legal challenge in the UK Employment Tribunal over the employment status of its drivers. The Tribunal ruled that Bolt’s drivers qualify as “workers” rather than self-employed independent contractors, as Bolt had argued. This classification means that drivers are entitled to employment benefits, including minimum wage protections. The case was brought by approximately 10,000 current and former drivers seeking minimum wage pay and other employment benefits. Lawyers representing the drivers estimate that Bolt could face a financial liability exceeding £200 million as a result of this decision.

Financing

Initially, Bolt raised over €1 million in investment capital from Estonian and Finnish

angel investors An angel investor (also known as a business angel, informal investor, angel funder, private investor, or seed investor) is an individual who provides capital to a business or businesses, including startups, usually in exchange for convertible debt ...

. In August 2017, Didi Chuxing invested an undisclosed amount believed to be an "eight-figure U.S. dollar sum". A May 2018 funding round with a $175 million investment from

Daimler Daimler is a German surname. It may refer to: People * Gottlieb Daimler (1834–1900), German inventor, industrialist and namesake of a series of automobile companies * Adolf Daimler (1871–1913), engineer and son of Gottlieb Daimler * Paul Da ...

, Didi and others led to a 1 billion dollar valuation for the company, making it a

unicorn The unicorn is a legendary creature that has been described since Classical antiquity, antiquity as a beast with a single large, pointed, spiraling horn (anatomy), horn projecting from its forehead. In European literature and art, the unico ...

. In January 2020, the

European Investment Bank The European Investment Bank (EIB) is the European Union's investment bank and is owned by the 27 member states. It is the largest multilateral financial institution in the world. The EIB finances and invests both through equity and debt sol ...

signed a EUR 50 million venture debt facility with Bolt. The financing, supported by the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI), is to boost Bolt's product development in areas where technology can improve the safety, reliability and sustainability of its services. This includes investment in existing services such as

vehicle for hire A vehicle for hire is a vehicle providing private transport or shared transport for a fee, in which passengers are generally free to choose their points or approximate points of origin and destination, unlike public transport, and which t ...

and

, as well as the development of new products. In December 2020, Bolt raised €150 million from

venture capital Venture capital (VC) is a form of private equity financing provided by firms or funds to start-up company, startup, early-stage, and emerging companies, that have been deemed to have high growth potential or that have demonstrated high growth in ...

investment fund An investment fund is a way of investment, investing money alongside other investors in order to benefit from the inherent advantages of working as part of a group such as reducing the risks of the investment by a significant percentage. These ad ...

s. In March 2021, Bolt raised €20 million from

International Finance Corporation The International Finance Corporation (IFC) is an international financial institution headquartered in Washington, D.C. and a member of the World Bank Group that offers investment, advisory, and asset-management services to encourage private ...

, a

World Bank Group The World Bank Group (WBG) is a family of five international organizations that make leveraged loans to developing countries. It is the largest and best-known development bank in the world and an observer at the United Nations Development Group ...

member, for further expansion in

emerging market An emerging market (or an emerging country or an emerging economy) is a market that has some characteristics of a developed market, but does not fully meet its standards. This includes markets that may become developed markets in the future or we ...

s. The company was valued at more than €2 billion after this fundraising round. In August 2021, Bolt raised €600 million from

Sequoia Capital Sequoia Capital Operations, LLC is an American venture capital firm headquartered in Menlo Park, California, specializing in seed stage, early stage, and growth stage investments in private companies across technology sectors. the firm had appro ...

increasing the valuation of the company to over €4 billion. In January 2022, Bolt raised €628 million from investors led by

and Fidelity Management and Research Co, taking the company's valuation to €7.4 billion. In May 2024, Bolt announced they had raised a €220 million revolving credit facility.

Rental services

Bolt e-scooters

In September 2018, the company announced it was expanding into

services. After launching scooters in Paris, Bolt expanded its micromobility operations across Europe. In November 2022, Bolt scooters were integrated into the Norwegian MaaS application, Ruter, and in May 2023 — into Berlin’s mobility app, Jelbi. As of February 2023, Bolt has operations in 260 cities across 25 countries and 250,000 shared vehicles available for rental. In June 2023, Bolt introduced their new scooter model — Bolt 6.

Bolt e-bikes

Two years after launching e-scooters, in May 2020, Bolt launched e-bikes in Paris, France. And in the following years expanded its e-bike operations across many major European cities.

Bolt Drive

In May 2021, Bolt launched a

car-sharing Carsharing or car sharing (AU, NZ, CA, TH, & US) or car clubs (UK) is a model of car rental where people rent cars for short periods of time, often by the hour. It differs from traditional car rental in that the owners of the cars are often pri ...

service, Bolt Drive. Bolt Drive launched in Tallinn, Estonia, and has since expanded to six more countries — Latvia, Lithuania,, Germany, Poland, Czechia and Portugal. In May 2023, Bolt entered into leasing framework agreements for a total of €126m with Luminor and

Swedbank Swedbank AB is a Swedish multinational banking group headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden. It operates primarily in the Nordic and Baltic regions, offering services such as retail banking, asset management and other financial services. Swedbank ...

to enable the expansion of Bolt Drive in the Baltic countries. It had 1,500

vehicles in

Vilnius Vilnius ( , ) is the capital of and List of cities in Lithuania#Cities, largest city in Lithuania and the List of cities in the Baltic states by population, most-populous city in the Baltic states. The city's estimated January 2025 population w ...

18 months after launch. Bolt's car-sharing service in Vilnius costs from 0.05 euros per minute for

Audi Q2 The Audi Q2 is a subcompact luxury crossover SUV developed and manufactured by the German car manufacturer Audi, a subsidiary of the Volkswagen Group. It was first unveiled to the public on 1 March 2016 at the 2016 Geneva Motor Show and built ...

and

Peugeot 208 The Peugeot 208 is a subcompact car (B-segment in Europe) produced by the French automaker Peugeot. Unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show in March 2012 and positioned below the larger 308, the 208 replaced the 207 in 2012, and is currently at its se ...

Other products

Self-driving cars

In August 2019, Bolt and the

University of Tartu The University of Tartu (UT; ; ) is a public research university located in the city of Tartu, Estonia. It is the national university of Estonia. It is also the largest and oldest university in the country.

announced a partnership on an applied research project to develop technology for

self-driving car A self-driving car, also known as an autonomous car (AC), driverless car, robotic car or robo-car, is a car that is capable of operating with reduced or no human input. They are sometimes called robotaxis, though this term refers specifica ...

s. In April 2021, Bolt and the University of Tartu expanded their cooperation on the AV project, signing a new 5-year agreement designed to further develop the technical capabilities of the university's autonomous driving lab in the areas of

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is the capability of computer, computational systems to perform tasks typically associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and decision-making. It is a field of re ...

and maps and algorithms.

Grocery delivery service

In 2021, Bolt launched grocery delivery service in the

Baltic States The Baltic states or the Baltic countries is a geopolitical term encompassing Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. All three countries are members of NATO, the European Union, the Eurozone, and the OECD. The three sovereign states on the eastern co ...

. It later expanded to

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

and elsewhere. Bolt plans to eventually deliver groceries with self-driving robots, in partnership with

Starship Technologies Starship Technologies, Inc. is a Delaware corporation developing autonomous delivery vehicles. Founded in 2014, the company is headquartered in San Francisco, California, with engineering operations in Tallinn, Estonia, and Helsinki, Finland. ...

Support for Ukraine

In late February 2022, following the

Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

, Bolt announced it was removing all products produced in

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

or associated with Russian companies from Bolt Market, as well as closing down all operations in

Belarus Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...

due to the country’s enablement of the Russian invasion. Bolt also announced it would donate 5% of every Bolt order in Europe in the two weeks following the invasion to support

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

. This amount to over €5 million which was distributed to

NGOs A non-governmental organization (NGO) is an independent, typically nonprofit organization that operates outside government control, though it may get a significant percentage of its funding from government or corporate sources. NGOs often focus ...

working on the ground to support Ukraine and its people. Bolt also pledged to keep its services running in Ukraine during the ongoing

Russo-Ukrainian War The Russo-Ukrainian War began in February 2014 and is ongoing. Following Ukraine's Revolution of Dignity, Russia Russian occupation of Crimea, occupied and Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation, annexed Crimea from Ukraine. It then ...

References

External links

* {{Scooter sharing systems 2013 establishments in Estonia Ridesharing companies Road transport in Estonia Online companies of Estonia Transport companies of Estonia Transport companies established in 2013 Companies based in Tallinn Estonian brands Scooter sharing companies